California’s New GDPR-Like Data Privacy Law & What It Means for Businesses

The state signed the California Consumer Privacy Act into law on June 28, 2018. The news comes just on the heels of the European Union’s launch of the General Data Protection Regulation and will require companies to again rethink their data collection methods.

“What the CCPA does is it adds to those preexisting rights [under California law] and increases or broadens the scope of what is defined as personal information under California law,” Newby said.

Newby also describes the five major rights Californian consumers gain under CCPA and their individual impact on any company conducting business with Californian customers. While most businesses made adjustments to comply with GDPR rules, many small companies with no European business did not and may now have to make some changes. CCPA demands businesses to pay better attention to the consumer information they collect and where the data is stored.

“They need to be able to respond whenever a consumer contacts them and requests access to the personal information they have collected,” Newby told Reuters.